How can we use an industrial waste to make a product with a local function?

Marble Chalk

Anton Sisa Don Ropers

Marble Chalk, is a product that uses an industrial waste material to fullfill a sustainable and local function, in the context of South Tyrol. This is a set of liquid and powder climbing chalks that are 2/3 made from marble powder residues. The liquid chalk is for the first application onto the hands, and before it dries, it seeps into every porous crack, to create a really thick and grippy base layer so that climbers can get their crimp on. My goal was to use the wasted luxury dust from the sawing processess of Lasa Marmo (the stone quarry), in order to make a product with a local application, which in this case are the Dolomites, the headquarter of the worlds most elite climbers. The starter kit of the marble chalk includes, a 250ml bottle of liquid chalk and a 500g bag of powder chalk. The powder chalk can be filled into a chalk ball/bag and can be taken up the rock climbing wall to chalk up the hands while hanging. These two packages are held together by a silikon ring and a carabiner so that it can be hung up in a store. The silikon ring also fits over the 400ml bottle which can be bought seperatly, like the 1500g chalk bag. This silikon ring is intended for carrying, and gives the user the possibility to hang both sizes of liquid chalk on their climbing gear.

A project made in the course

The White Marble Project.

The White Marble Project. During the winter semester 2022/23, we have been exploring the potential of white Lasa marble, which is a 400-million-year-old metamorphic stone from the Jennwand massif of the Vinschgau Nörderberg, located on the edge of the Stilfserjoch National Park. As one of the most valuable natural resources of South Tyrol, which is otherwise rather poor in mineral raw materials, white marble has been quarried in the Vinschgau Valley for centuries, especially in Laas and Göflan. It has been exported by the ton as building material and decorative stone all over the world and yet it only represents a limited deposit that will be exhausted within just a few generations.
More projects by Anton Sisa Don Ropers
Explore related projects